Textile Arts Books

Always wonder what to do with those t-shirts that are too big or too small, or a little worn out! I recommend this to anyone looking for a creative way to recycle their t-shirts!

If you don't care to sew but want to join the altered,recycled clothing craze, this is a great place to start. Most projects are easily achieveable by the inexperienced crafter and are attractive and wearable. The main downside to this book is that most of the clothing isn't very sophisticated or wearable for those over about 35. I found it a great resource for working with my teenaged daughter and niece. They both liked the designs and found the directions easy to understand and follow.

For many years I have been interested in the dynamics of t-shirt reconstruction. In my late teens I made a few attempts at DIY reconstruction but knew very little about the basics of sewing. Once I learned how to sew I began on an endless journey to DIY fashion creating one of a kind shirts to separate myself from boring, monotonous trends. My boyfriend called to tell me about generation T and suggested I visit the site. I immediately fell in love and ordered the book right away. Literally two days later I received the book and my eyes become open to a whole new word of DIY fashion. The possibilities are endless and this book is not simply limited to t-shirts. There are handbags, pillows, skirts, rugs, and much more. There is even a wedding dress at the end of the book designed with t-shirts!! I made a new projects every day with this book, sometimes two projects a day. It's good to own a sewing machine but if you don't, all of projects that require sewing can be easily stitched by hand. At the beginning of the book the author explains different stitching techniques so that even a beginner can complete the projects. A third of the book is no-sew which makes things even easier. I highly recommend this book, it's like a DIY bible for fashion.

I got this book this summer for my daughter, age 12, and her friend. Both girls are crafty, creative (they take art classes together), and have used a sewing machine independently. My daughter's friend even makes tailored clothes for herself! I thought the book would give them some fun & funky ideas. They did enjoy paging through it and both did manage to find a pattern to make. But I'm not sure they'll come back to this much because they felt the styles were too skimpy for them. Neither one is more modest than an average 12 year old, but they still didn't feel comfortable wearing most of the shirts out of the house. They were really amazed by the whole chapter of tube tops. (They asked me "Who would wear these things?")

Too bad...These girls are a perfect market for something like this. I guess I'll have to keep looking.

I bought this book for my girlfriend and she loved it. A few days after receiving the book, she's done a few nice modifications to her older t-shirts and they looked great! I was impressed myself!

The instructions given in this book are easy to understand and implement. This book will keep her happy and busy.

I recommend this book to absolute beginners who would like to get started with transforming t-shirts. This would help you get started without much difficulty. However, you won't become the next Adam Saaks with this book.

With every hobby or passion - Stick to it and love every minute of it :)

I really love this book! The designs are all cute, fresh and fun...and I want to make them all. Creative ideas for using embroidery, even if you already know how. But the instructions seem pretty clear if you don't.

I am a beginning embroiderer and this book is amazing! Simple instructions for each project and nice illustrations. This a is a great book and every embroiderer should have one!

Doodle Stitching: Fresh & Fun Embroidery for Beginners
I found this book to be informative and motivating. It gives Ideas for embroidered items and also gives permission to do just what you want! I recommend this book to those who want to be more creative with thread.

Hand embroidery is growing in popularity, much to my delight. I have done embroidery for almost 20 years and this is probably the most delightful book I've ever found on the subject. The book claims to be for beginners, but I would venture to say it's appropriate for all skill levels. I am taken by the unique designs presented, and inspired to create more of my own based on the designer's concept.
Some have complained that a couple designs shown in the book, namely the cover design, are not included as patterns. I can understand the frustration, but I was not given the impression upon buying it that this was a pattern book, but rather a conceptual book. I was under the impression that the patterns included in the book are meant to be a springboard to inspire the book's users to create their own original works.
I think it's a lovely idea, and I am very pleased to have fresh inspiration.

I have been in search for a book like this for years, honestly. There are very little options for cute, casual embroidery out there and this one has several patterns that can be used on much more than the depicted use. One reviewer noted that there are several pages that have patterns not included in the book. I agree, this is disappointing but you can find a couple of these patterns on the author's etsy page ([...]) and she will send them to you as a PDF. The step by step instructions are so thorough that even an embroidered quilt doesn't seem daunting and I'm actually excited about putting it all together. That's a first. I gave 4 stars instead of 5 because I was a little disappointed in the actual projects - I'd love to have seen more projects like placemats and tablecloths, baby onesies and bibs... things like that. Otherwise, this book is very exciting. Highly recommended for the thorough details that make the prospect easy, plus the complete guide to the stitches - excellent for a beginner!

have long lusted after this book but here in OZ its nearly $40.0au so at amazon, even with the exchange rate and postage I could buy myself a copy,for just under half price, my quilting buddy will now get hers back, its great for not only jelly rolls but any scraps that can be cut into 2" strips, great fast quilts that look as if you have been working really hard to get the stunning effect julie

Great ideas for making use of Jelly Rolls. Quick and easy directions for very nice quilts.

This book has beautiful pictures and easy to understand directions for many different types of jelly roll quilts. The directions are not limited to jelly rolls but does explain how to create the same quilt effect with strips of fabric or squares/triangles you cut on your own. I can't wait to start on the quilts. The hardest part will be choosing which one to use first.

I love this book! There are so many great quilts in it that it is hard to pick one to start on! I would recommend this book to anyone who wants some fun and easy projects!

I bought this book for inspiration after buyng a Moda jelly roll on a whim and then having no idea what to do with it. I have read through the book several times, and I can't wait to make several of the patterns. I am keeping my eyes open for additional jelly rolls to buy that will work with the pattern designs. Worth a look!

Hi!
I even doesn't know what it's possible to do with the fabric!!!!!Very interesting book about making 3 dimensional things with simple muslin tissue(exemple).I love it!
It's like open my mind really!!!Very good purchase! Thanks!!:-)))

First let me say that I am a simple quiltmaker. But I am a fantastic dreamer! This author has taken all of my dreams and made them come true. I cannot believe the things she does with the most common of fabrics. She sews designs and stuffs them with batting, then creates a wonderful picture with them. She pleats and ruches, too. Welting, cording, smocking, and tucking, are only a few of the lessons in her repertoire. The best way I know to describe her work is to say it's extremely varied in all areas of manipulation and is unlimited in its use. Clothing and quilts become things of great beauty when created using her methods. I recommend this book for all those who are the least bit interested in working with fabric. There are no brightly colored pictures, however. They are just not necessary here.

This is a wonderful reference book for all those interested in sewing and embellishing fabric. It's pure pleasure just looking at the pictures! I have given the book 4 stars though because, although I understand that the use of unbleached white muslin for all samples is clearly useful, I would have liked to see the pictures in color anyway, and not just in black and white. A snow-white cotton fabric over a mahogany background or something similar would have been perfect. It would have given the book the final touch of elegance and luxury which all these fabric embellishments are about anyway. A better picture resolution would have been ideal too, but maybe it's just my bad eyesight! In any case, I wholeheartedly congratulate Colette Wolff and thank her for this fantastic addition to the sewing libraries of passionate fabric/sewing lovers like myself, and I will wait for a second edition with more fabric manipulating ideas! The sky is the limit!

The Art of Manipulating Fabric is a wonderful book. There are excellent pictures or diagrams on every page. The instruction for creating the details covered in the book are excellent as well. Easy to follow. I would recommend this book to any seamstress who wants to improve their sewing by adding these special deatails that make a garment truely special.

Very unique and creatively artistic quilt art. Will take time to learn, but is beautiful and gets your attention right now.

Masters: Art Quilts from Lark Books is a sumptuous visual feast for quilters and non-quilters alike. The gorgeous work featured is innovative and inspiring, and the profiles of each of the 40 featured quilters adds enormous depth to the entire presentation. This beautiful coffee-table release deserves a place of honor in your living room. Don't miss out! I'm also very excited about another release in Lark's groundbreaking Masters series: Masters: Beadweaving Masters: Beadweaving: Major Works by Leading Artists (The Masters), curated by eminent beadweaver Carol Wilcox Wells.

As reviewed in Melisse Laing's "Stitches & Stuff" column in The Daily News, Longview, WA on August 26, 2008:
"Masters: Art Quilts" by Martha Sielman is a collection of the works of 41 artists who are working today as art quilters. Many are well known - Jane Sassaman, Hollis Chatelain, Yvonne Porcella, Caryl Bryer Fallert, to name a few.
Others you will enjoy getting to know as you read brief biographies and comments from the artists and see color photographs of their works.

This book is one of the best I have seen on contemporary quilt making. Martha Sielman chose the creme de la creme of the quilting world to include in the book- an arduous and difficult task I think! This is a book that you will look at again & again and always find something new. Fabulous! Well done! A must have for any contemporary quilter's library. Also, I think, a "must have" for libraries....come to think of it !

an amazing inspirational book that inspirers and leads quilters on to bigger and better quilts. The photos of the Masters quilts are breathtaking . I just love owning this book . glance at it every day

"Masters: Art Quilts" is one of the most fantastic books I've ever seen; incredible photo imaging, wonderful commentaries about the artists, and the book is beautifully organized. "Masters" is inspirational - think of it as artistic "eye candy",,,,,, I'll treasure it forever ! Congratulations to Studio Art Quilts Associates (S.A.Q.A.) executive director, Martha Sielman, for providing all of us with such an outstanding book ! Kathy Harte, From the Harte Design Studio, Anchorage, Alaska

MASTERS: BEADWEAVING is the latest title in Lark Books' astonishing Masters series and quite possibly my favorite. I'm a huge fan of this series. Each title is dedicated to a particular craft or niche; other books include the very beautiful Masters: Art Quilts: Major Works by Leading Artists (The Masters) and Masters: Glass Beads: Major Works by Leading Artists (The Masters). In Masters: Beadweaving, Carol Wilcox Wells, a master beadweaver herself and seminal bead-book author, has curated a title featuring three dozen bead artists each given eight pages to showcase their best work, with quotes from the artists and short essays by Wells about their style and technique rounding out the presentation.

Including sculptural work, vessels, and of course jewelry, as well as a wide array of stitches, the range of work presented is astonishing, and the excellence of the artists who are featured absolutely manifest. More than just outstanding craft, the pieces selected are truly fine art. Above all, this inspiring volume is simply gorgeous -- beaders and non-beaders alike will find endless visual delight in the book. Since I received it, I just can't stop picking it up. With it already underpriced at $24.95 for what it delivers, Amazon's discounted price makes it an amazing steal.

For beaders and fans of the medium, here's what you want to know: The 36 artists featured are Jeanette Ahlgren, Jo Ann Baumann, Virginia L. Blakelock, Rebecca Brown-Thompson, David K. Chatt, Sonya Clark, Marcia DeCoster, Sharon Donovan, Wendy Ellsworth, Margo C. Field, Linda Fifield, Diane Fitzgerald, Susan Etcoff Fraerman, Leslie Frazier, Valerie Hector, Laura Leonard, Dallas Lovett, Eleanor Lux, Laura McCabe, NanC Meinhardt, Maggie Meister, Ann Tevepaugh Mitchell, Rachel Nelson-Smith, Karen Paust, Huib Petersen, Don Pierce, Melanie Potter, Madelyn C. Ricks, Cynthia Rutledge, Joyce J. Scott, Sherry Serafini, Natasha St. Michael, Marcie Stone, Laura Willits, Amolia Willowsong, and Sharmini Wirasekara. Enjoy!

Just got my copy today and I'm more than thrilled. It's a nice heavy, quality book for the price. The photos are good and the little blurbs about the artists are very nice. Yes, we have seen some of the beadwork by famous artists (Diane Fitzgerald, etc.) before in other books, but a lot of it I haven't seen before.

Can't wait to sit down tonight and pore over every page!

There are so many techniques included in this book, and although promoted as a fabric art book for fabric artists and quilters, it could also be used for many mixed media arts including paper arts and journaling etc.. I loved getting so many techniques and ideas in one book.

Just like the title said...Fabric art workshop. (Exploring techniques & materials) For anyone not able to actually go and take seminars/workshops this is a great book to have. The materials and tools list for each is fantastic. No guessing. Instructions are easy to understand. No over your head stuff. Susan Stein did a wonderful job on this book. So much so, I'd still like to take a class from her in person!

What a great book! I disagree with the person who says it is for an absolute beginner. I am far from a beginner and was very impressed with the different techniques in this book. The instructions are clear, with an additional suggestion at the bottom every page. The supplies needed for the techniques are fairly easy to come by. I look forward to trying them!

This book has so many different techniques, it's delicious! I have most of the products to start in my own stash and purchased a few more. It's enough to keep me busy without boredom. 5 stars!!

This book is only for the absolute beginner. I could find nothing to inspire me.

An extremely useful book - has given me a lot of useful background information and been absolutely invaluable helping us out with customer questions.

She likes this book enough to buy it, which is unusual, so her opinion speaks for itself. Especially since she crochets, not knits.

This is a good, well-written book.

My beef is with the description, which led me to expect 256 pages of in-depth information about fiber properties, fiber blending, the effects of bleaching, dye and other processing on the fibers, and the benefits and drawbacks of various yarn constructions. I was very excited about getting such a book.

Which is why I was so disappointed when I got the book to find so much of the space was actually devoted to patterns. The patterns are certainly good, but there are pattern books by the hundreds---that wasn't what I was shopping for here, and space given over to patterns was taken away from the information I had expected and wanted.

The shame of it is that Clara Parkes is a fine writer with wide exposure to yarns and yarn types, and access to the people who create them and the people who use them. As someone who neither creates nor sells fibers or yarns, she is in perhaps an ideal position to synthesize yarn and fiber information in a readable, unbiased way - precisely the book I expected and wanted.

What appears in the book is more of a survey of fibers and yarns for the advanced beginner or intermediate knitter, while I was expecting more of a true fiber-whisperer master class. I would have bought this book anyway had it been more accurately described, but I would have been a much happier owner had my expectations not been raised so high by the description. In Sheep's Clothing: A Handspinner's Guide to Wool by Nola and Jane Fournier is closer to what I expected this to be as far as reviewing specific fibers, although it deals only in wool and does not discuss the issues of chemistry or yarn structure.

I do like this book, but I'm also still waiting for someone (maybe Clara?) to write the book I thought it was going to be.

This book is gorgeous. It's well-bound, full-color, and printed on thick paper. Now, I know that how a book looks doesn't really matter, but in this case, the quality of the craftmanship is a definite bonus, as I can see myself using this book for years.

Parkes has written a wonderful book on everything you could ever want to know about yarn. The first part of the book has focuses on natural(both plant and animal) and synthetic fibers, including info such as where it's from, how it's made, what characteristics the fiber has, what it's good for, what its weaknesses are, and so on. After reading this book, you'll be completely prepared to make the appropriate fiber choices for the project at hand. Want to know which fiber would be best for a light but warm scarf? How about a yarn for a sweater that's both easy to care for but knits up without stretching and sagging too much? This book answers these questions and more.

In the second part of the book, Parkes has included a number of patterns that emphasize a particular yarn's highlights. All of these designs are beautiful, classic pieces that will stand the test of time...there's nothing in here that would look dated, so you can be assured that the sweater your worked on for months will, with care, last you many years.

I can't say enough good things about this book. It's chock full of useful information for anyone that works with yarn, it's organized beautifully, the quality of the book is high, and Parkes writes in a conversational tone that makes you feel as if you're being guided by a close friend. It's definitely something that should be on every fiber crafter's bookshelf.

This book is the equivalent to a college course on fibers and their characteristics. NOW I know why some of my projects were not what I had hoped they would be; I substituted yarns that were the same gauge, but that wasn't enough. The patterns in this book are examples of each type of yarn (not just the fiber, but the number of plies, etc.) and are very user-friendly. I've already completed a small project, and this time my yarn substitution worked extremely well. I've knitted for many years, but feel that I've graduated to a new level because of this book.

All work has come to a standstill here now that the mail carrier arrived with Rayna Gillman's new book, "Create your own hand-printed cloth: Stamp, screen & stencil with everyday objects." I am fighting the urge to lock myself in a room away from my kids (they can forage for their own lunch, can't they?) and read the whole thing non-stop. Gillman covers stamping and stenciling with found objects; random screen printing; gelatin plate printing; screen printing with thickened dyes; discharge painting; soy wax batik; and rubbings.

For each technique, there are lots of detailed directions and excellent photos to accompany them. She also provides supply lists (and websites where you can buy the supplies).

Within a week after getting this book, I met with a group of fiber art friends and we played with stamping using found objects, guided by the book. The results were great. This is a book I will really USE. And I can't wait to try more of these techniques.

This book is spectacular! Whether you are a visual or verbal learner or any kind in between, Rayna's pictures and explanations make cutting-edge surface design methods approachable and dare I say...fun! This book is a must-have.

This is a source for many many printing techniques. Each is explained in detail, and has plenty of examples. As an artist I don't necessarily want a book of specific projects, I want a book that will help me expand and learn. Rayna's book does that and does it well.

The surface design possibilities are endless and Rayna presents all the tools and techniques with a "you can do this" playful attitude. In this one book she covers so many techniques that it will be a great addition to your fiber library to be used over and over again. She opens your eyes to household items that you will be able to use to transform ho-hum fabric into one of-a-kind art cloth. She has opened up the candy box, now jump in and PLAY!

This book is a wonderful resource for the many different ways that the textile artist can use to alter the surface of fabric. With great wit and wisdom, Rayna removes the fear of using such things as thickened dye, discharge paste and soy wax and imparts confidence that "you too can make your own fabric!"